These Christians Went To A Pride Parade With "I'm Sorry" Signs And People Love It

Over the weekend, thousands of people in the Philippines attended the annual Pride march in Marikina City, east of the capital, Manila.

Ted Aljibe / AFP / Getty Images

Upon entering Marikina Stadium, where the march ended, Jamilah Salvador, a 19-year-old from Cainta, was greeted by a group of Christians holding up signs apologizing for the ways Christians have harmed the LGBT community.

A lot of people praised the group for how progressive they felt it was.

@JAMBIyutiful These are such brave beautiful people to be willing to change and grow and apologize in a climate of fear and loss. Not just covering up the choices you've made but owning up to them is one of the hardest choices you can make.

And they thought that this was what Christianity was all about.

This is how it's supposed to be. This is a great example of how we as christians are called to be accepting and understanding not judgemental or hateful . Keep doing what you're doing👌 https://t.co/3mQHKQZ9QK

The group is from the Church of Freedom in Christ Ministries (FICM), an Evangelical and Pentecostal church in Makati.

Val Paminiano, the pastor at FICM, told BuzzFeed News that he and members of his church have been attending pride marches for about four years now as part of their "I'm Sorry" campaign.

"We are apologizing for the way Christians have hurt the LGBT community, especially by using the Bible in condemning and judging them," Paminiano said.

"I used to believe that God condemns homosexuals, but when I studied the scriptures, especially the ones that we call 'clobber scriptures' that are being cherry-picked from the Bible to condemn LGBT people, I realized that there's a lot to discover, including the truth that God is not against anyone," Paminiano said. "God does not discriminate against people based on gender."

He said that he hoped other Christians would stop using scriptures to condemn the LGBT community because it was keeping them away from the church and from Jesus.

"We pray that more and more Christians will act, speak, and love the LGBT people like Jesus would," he said.